India looks to migrate to next-gen networks

BANGALORE, India  While technology advances now enable unification of networks and convergence of services, various telecom services in India are provided through disparate networks. To move these to Internet Protocol-based next-generation networks, the telecom regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked stakeholders to submit their ideas within the next three weeks.

Next-generation networks broaden access to services through various networks and offer cheaper bandwidth, promising significant benefits and opportunities, both for service providers and end-users through a common platform, the TRAI said. Such a network enables end-users to create a new service if desired, as the intelligence resides at the edges, it said.

The TRAI added that many telecom operators in India are already planning to set up next-generation networks, while operators in the U.K., Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and some other nations have started migrating to such networks.